


Stalemate

by GinnyBadWolf



Series: So This is How it Ends [4]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Grand Theft Auto Setting, Angst, Death, Friendship, Gen, Ryan's Heist, Sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-24 13:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6155312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyBadWolf/pseuds/GinnyBadWolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the end of Ryan's Heist, Ryan and Ray find themselves turning on each other. <br/>How did it happen? </p><p>Creds to Zack Black on Youtube for the idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stalemate

Ray trudges through the darkness of the tunnel. Beside him, Ryan walks. There’s something wrong - something off - something that isn’t quite right. Besides the fact that the rest of their friends - fuck, the people they have spent the last two years with! - are all dead, there is something that is cold. 

Ray cannot see, and that is probably the thing that scares him the second most (the first most is whatever sort of dread is hanging in the air around them like a heavy perfume). Occasionally, they pass a dim, flickering light and it only sheds light (Hah! A pun, even now! Go Ray) on what they’ve gotten themselves into. To be literal, it’s an underground tunnel, but to be figurative, it’s this dreadful mood. 

Maybe it’s just that Ray is scared of the dark. Honestly, Ray doesn’t know if he’s afraid of anything for sure. Is he afraid of height? Spiders? Fire? Really, the only fear he ever feels is fleeting and completely situational - now, actually, is a perfect example. He’s terrified of this fact that the people he cares about the most are all dead, which is something he’s never been afraid of before. He’s afraid of this mood. But - maybe it’s not the mood, maybe it’s the dark, maybe it’s the cold. Maybe it’s this confusion - maybe Ray’s afraid of the unknown!

Ray isn’t making much sense, even in his own head. He’s quite aware of that, and has known it since he was able to think. Ray hardly makes any sense - his own thoughts are just a jumble of running commentary, all forgotten in the next second after he’s moved on to something. But, as he passes another light that shows the tall figure with the skull mask, he knows that he probably makes much more sense than this walking, murdering enigma next to him.

He sighs. He can’t keep pushing things away, like he is now, and he can’t push away Ryan either. He needs to talk, somehow, with somebody. And Ryan is absolutely the only person he can talk with, so he tries. But, for some reason, no sound comes out. Maybe his voice is sore from shouting his friend’s names. 

Ryan starts to jog, and Ray doesn’t want to lose him, so he meets his pace. It speeds up, to a fast run, and Ray pants. He’s already tired, and his lungs feel like they’re going to explode. His throat is dry, and a pain that only can be described like static in his chest sparks and prickles. “Ryan...” He says, and they start to slow into a brisk walk. 

Ryan, though his chest is heaving slightly, does not look tired or disturbed. He turns to look at Ray, who feels a pang of fear and worry at how creepy Ryan looks with the mask on. Ray has become so accustomed to Ryan’s face - Ryan the person, Ryan the human, Ryan the friend, that whatever is in front of him doesn’t look familiar. Too impervious - too willing, too okay. 

“Can... can we talk about this?” Ray rasps. Ryan, by the slight shake of his head, seems to be a bit agitated. But he draws in a breath, and when he speaks, his voice is steady and calm.

“Well, there’s not much to talk about, is there?” 

A shiver of disbelief and confusion runs down Ray’s spine. He looks at Ryan, and his voice gives a hint of reproach. “W-What the hell does that mean?! Ryan, they’re... they’re dead!” Ryan doesn’t respond, and Ray takes a deep breath and tries to understand. “How could you even say that, man? Don’t you even care?” 

Ryan shrugs and scoffs, and Ray feels a shiver of fear. Ryan is in one of his... moods. His voice is deadly calm and makes Ray instinctively put his hand in his back pocket, right next to his holster. “What an easily narrowed observation... Please, spare me this one cliche and realize; I know they’re dead. Unlike you, I watched it all happen.” Ryan sighs, and assumes a more amiable tone. “You should look on the bright side. We’re alive, relatively uninjured, and rich. That stacks up.” Despite his friendly words, Ray does not feel better. 

Ray makes a stride towards Ryan, cursing his height and slim frame as he realizes just how large Ryan is compared to him. His thoughts are jumbled, tangled, reaching out and making connections and turning into one gigantic, outraged knot. “That’s fuckin’ cold! Four! Four friends all dead, gone, and you don’t even pretend to care! What’s wrong with you?!” Ray knows that’s a question he doesn’t want answered, but he spits it out anyway.

Ryan shuffles a little, turning so that he’s facing the rest of the tunnel and giving Ray a slightly crazed side-eye. It’s like he has read Ray’s mind. “You don’t want to know.” 

Ray knows he looks mutinous, and that’s because he is. “How is it that you’re so calm? We’ve all been friends for years, worked together, lived together? You can’t seriously be calm - you can’t! It’s not possible!” 

Ryan chuckles dryly. He takes off his mask, and runs a hand through his hair. Ray feels his anger quell the slightest bit at seeing his friend’s face, and not the one of a vicious criminal - although he can’t be too sure that they’re so separate. Ryan had always been like a normal person off the job - they all had. Ray had thought perhaps Ryan wasn’t really a psychopath like he leads people to believe. But that conviction has disappeared, replaced by suspicion and doubt. 

He answers nonchalantly. “But, Ray, I am calm. There’s a nice phrase, one that I take to heart - ‘Life goes on’. It doesn’t matter of four of our friends are gone, because we’re still here, and life as we know it is still moving on, creating new things, new life. Death is a natural occurrence, Ray. Don’t presume that they’re special, and don’t presume that your loss is so great. It’s selfish.” Ray scowls, and flings a response back. 

“Fuck selfish, man! The people who took me in, who lived with me, who were my best friends, all just died! Don’t ‘presume’ that I can just ignore what I feel because in the scheme of things, it means nothing! It fucking means something, Ryan! I just lost the most important people in my life, and yours, too - this shit takes time. I can’t shrug it off, and my life can’t go on, because they are my life!” Ray pants at the end of his rampage, surprised at himself. 

Ray can almost feel a flash of anger from Ryan, and he loses part of the courage he had just a moment ago. Ray makes a small step back as Ryan starts to talk. “Do you really think that you guys are the first ones? The first group I came to? I’ve seen this over, and over, and over again - the pain, the heartbreak, the grief. It’s become my routine. This isn’t anything special. I find that skipping the stages of grief are more efficient.” Ray bites his lip and feels tears sting his eyes. Ryan sighs and starts to walk away, and Ray jogs after him to keep up. 

“That - that takes the humanity out of it...” Ray isn’t some philosophical genius, or a psychologist, or shit, so he struggles to find some reasoning, but he does. “You have to go through the stages of grief to - to get over it. It’s essential, or some shit. I dunno, but... you can’t just go skipping it, man. That ain’t right.” 

Ryan chuckles, and Ray frowns. “Humanity? What a joke. We lie, cheat, steal, and murder for a living, Ray. You can’t just act like you’re suddenly so righteous, too.” The grin that was on Ryan’s face fades, and he meets Ray’s eyes with an emotion so sudden and overwhelming Ray stumbles back a step. “Maybe... maybe at one time, death hurt. It’s been a while, but... it used to haunt me every day. I wasn’t always the Ryan you know today. I didn’t even go by Ryan back then.”

There’s a small pause, but Ray stays quiet. Even if he’s known Ryan for years, he had never heard anything about Ryan’s past. Ryan turns away a little bit, closing himself off, but he continues. “James. I used to go by James. Maybe that’s why I’m so distant from my past, the name change... I - James - kept too many friends for the work I was in. Oh, how we paid for that simple mistake... After a lifetime of murder, and regret, I finally learned one thing. Friends are nothing but vulnerabilities. Weaknesses. They’re the chains, holding me back, and one by one, the chains are breaking. They have broken.” Ryan turns his back completely on Ray, and there is an eerie silence. 

“I’ve been free a long time now.” 

Ray’s knees are a little shaky, and so is his voice, but he rests his hand on Ryan’s shoulders and takes a step forward. “H-hey, look, man, I didn’t know...” 

Ryan chuckles one more time, and this time, it’s more sinister and less honest than before. “The crazy thing... the crazy fucking thing... is that I thought you guys would lure me back in. But that won’t happen, now. And I have one more chain link to get rid of.” Ryan turns menacingly towards Ray and pushes his hand off his shoulder.

No, no, this cannot be happening. Ryan slowly raises his assault rifle, aiming where Ray knows is right between his eyes (which fucking sucks, because, you know, that’s where his brain is). Ray raises his pink sniper rifle up and aims it at the same place. Ryan’s eyes widen, and he gives a surprised laugh. 

“Oh, Ray, getting testy! Refusing to die, even at the hands of the person who knows you best.” Ray adjusts his gun, a flicker of uncertainty flashing across his face. He takes a deep breath and responds. 

“Don’t you care at all? Don’t you care about the rest of the crew, about me? Don’t I matter to you, at all? I’m still alive, I could still help bring you back.” 

Ryan shakes his head. “No, you can’t. You still don’t understand, and you never will.”

Ray’s voice is laced with desperation. “Ryan, please. I don’t want to kill you - please, just stop. We can both live.” 

“But I want to kill you. There’s an obvious solution - I live, you die.”

Ray bites his lip and looks down, his eyes burning with tears. His voice sounds watery. “Ryan... please. Please. I’m begging you. If you ever cared about me, or the others, at all, please don’t do this. We can fix this, or we can walk away and never see each other again. J-just don’t make one of us kill the other.” 

Ryan looks away, showing the smallest sign of emotion. “Don’t Ray. Don’t make it too hard.” When he turns back, there is the smallest hint of tears gleaming in his eyes.

Ray lets one tear fall. Ryan’s face hardens upon seeing this, and his finger tightens on the trigger. “You know, there doesn’t have to be two of us. Goodbye, Ray.” He says, and his voice is full of steel. Ray knows Ryan’s about to pull the trigger. 

There’s a gunshot, and a mad cackle. Ryan falls to the ground, dead, and Ray is the last one standing with a smoking gun.


End file.
